<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>I Want to Believe by draculaspetbee</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28746657">I Want to Believe</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/draculaspetbee/pseuds/draculaspetbee'>draculaspetbee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The X-Files Crossover Nobody Asked For [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Humor, M/M, angst later, cross over fic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 14:20:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,773</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28746657</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/draculaspetbee/pseuds/draculaspetbee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex Manes and Michael Guerin have been partners for a little over three months now working on the X-Files. Michael gets a call about Bigfoot, and discovers that even Alex Manes has limits to what he will believe in. </p><p>It's my second X-Files cross over fic!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Michael Guerin/Alex Manes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The X-Files Crossover Nobody Asked For [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2107497</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Soooooo....</p><p>I've been gone a while. As you probably know. I was finishing up my thesis and then have been dealing with *gestures to everything around us*. But, a good friend finally talked me into starting my writing again, and this is the result. I'm rusty and a bit frustrated with this, but I wanted to get it out there and start again.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Michael, what the fuck is this.” Alex dropped a thick file onto the desk, the resounding ‘thud’ causing several pencils that Michael had thrown into the ceiling to rain down around them.</p><p>One of the projectiles stuck lead point down into the file, pinning it to the desk. Michael tried to flip through the file without removing the pencil, succeeding only in getting an amused snort from his partner. He finally gave up and wrenched the file free with such force he almost knocked himself off the desk chair. </p><p>“Well, it looks like someone found my secret file.”</p><p>“Guerin, this Bigfoot has boobs drawn on it.”</p><p>“Yea, well, I improved it.” Alex threw him a thoroughly unimpressed look from across the desk. Michael heaved a sigh and sat up straight, leaning forward to skim through the rest of the file.</p><p>“I was taking a closer look at the Patterson-Gimlin film, and I noticed that there was a weird way that the entity was carrying itself. See most people assume that Bigfoot is male.”<br/>
Clearly not finding what he was hoping for in the folder, Michael spun around and rifled through some of the files scattered behind their shared desk. While Alex had been meticulous about keeping the office tidy before they were partners, the place had steadily been overtaken by Michael’s clutter. </p><p>“Ah!” Michael held up a film reel, scattering paper over the floor. He threw it into an old projector and turned it towards the one blank wall in the room. A shaky picture of the California woods stuttered to life, showing the blurry motion of something walking across the screen. As Bigfoot turned towards the camera, Michael hit pause and stepped in front, hair akimbo, eyes alight, looking like an overenthusiastic professor. </p><p>“Look!” He gestured towards the figure, circling the chest area with his hand. “That is obviously something that has breasts!”</p><p>“Guerin, nobody is arguing that whatever person is under that costume had breasts, I wanted to know why you had drawn them onto the picture in this file.”</p><p>“I was looking at this case,” he started toward the file making it half a step before freezing, his face partly shadowed in the projection still on the wall, “wait, what? Did you just- Do you not- Don’t you think Bigfoot is real?” </p><p>“No.”</p><p>“But, Alex, it’s Bigfoot! One of the most documented cryptids on the planet! There’s so much evidence, someone literally caught it on tape!” He gestured to the blurry form behind him on the wall.</p><p>“It’s also one of the most hoaxed creatures on the planet! You can’t seriously be telling me you believe in Bigfoot.” Alex shook his head, mildly disappointed, and Michael gaped at him in disbelief.</p><p>“Alex. You, literally, not three months ago, found out that aliens were real. But Bigfoot is a step too far for you?”</p><p>“Yes Guerin, it is “a step too far”. I witnessed an actual, live, alien abduction. Or I thought I had. But there is just no concrete proof that Sasquatch is real.” Michael stared as Alex leaned back in the chair, taking pressure off his prosthetic, rifling through the file he’d left on the desk. “So, all of this is?”</p><p>“The information that I’ve compiled on Bigfoot! Look, look at this,” he reached over Alex to pull out a second picture out of the file folder. It was a sketchy drawing, done in black pen, of a figure with long black hair, empty eyes, and stiff limbs.</p><p>“And where did you get that?”</p><p>“Off of a guy in New Jersey! He said he’d been in the pine barrens hiking when he stumbled across this being. It threw a rock at him!” </p><p>This time Alex couldn’t help but let out snort of laughter.</p><p>“Guerin, that looks like a 5-year-old saw The Ring and drew that at school the next morning.”</p><p>Michael sat down with a huff, pouting slightly at his partner.</p><p>“Well you’re going to need to start believing, because this thing allegedly killed a man, and the NJPD have called us in to investigate.”</p><p>“And you think its Bigfoot? Not, I don’t know, a bear? A mountain lion? An angry spouse?”</p><p>“No! Look,” he leaned over the desk and pulled some out of the papers from the folder. “They’ve gotten eye-witness reports from people in the area. There’s even a hair sample that someone wants to turn in; Alex, come on!” Michael winced at the slight whine in his voice but pulled out his best puppy dog eyes for his partner to up the ante.</p><p>“Fine! Fine.” Alex threw up his hands in defeat and chuckled a bit. “But the New Jersey pine barrens? Really Guerin? You couldn’t have wanted to go somewhere warm and tropical? We could’ve gone to go see some sort of sea creature or something”</p><p>Michael had to fight down a blush at the thought of seeing Alex reclining in the sun, sun kissed and soft, with nothing but his swim trunks on. If Alex’s smirk was anything to go by, he was unsuccessful in doing so.</p><p>“Maybe next time babe, sorry.” He shot Alex a wink and began planning for their trip to New Jersey.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The journey there.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know this one is small, but it felt right to end the chapter here. Also, I updated the 150 Angst Prompts, so y'all get two updates from me this week!</p><p>I'm still hanging in there, but if you could, please comment or kudos this. I really appreciate any encouragement I get lol!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The four-hour drive to New Jersey was painful. Michael had insisted on driving, so Alex poured over the files, trying to find any type of facts to back up Michael’s apparent deep-held beliefs of a large hairy ape man who lived in the woods.</p><p>“I just don’t see what is compelling about this case Guerin.”</p><p>“Look, at page three,” Michael looked over to Alex in the passenger seat nodding when he flipped to the correct paper. “That’s the DNA tests that the local scientists did on the hair found on scene. See the part that’s circled?”</p><p>It would be hard to miss, Michael had gone over it with red Sharpie over a dozen times.</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“It came back inconclusive! They don’t know what it was!”</p><p>“Guerin, that could mean anything! That the hair had been contaminated by people who picked it up. It didn’t have enough DNA in it to find an answer-“</p><p>“Or that Bigfoot is real!”</p><p>“And it killed someone? Really?”</p><p>“Yes! There are multiple cases that say that the creatures can be aggressive if threatened. And a man walking into their habitat with weapons couldn’t be any more aggressive don’t you think?”</p><p> Alex sighed and rubbed his knee as it twinged. Sitting that long with his prosthetic could cause pain to ache through his limb.</p><p> “What about here?” Alex stretched out a little to relieve the pressure and started reading out loud from the paper. He pitched his voice low, taking on an accent. <em>“I think Sasquatch is a Nephilim. Or an alien. Something not from this dimension. How else would you explain something that can appear and disappear so fast? It’s a dimension walker.”</em></p><p>He scoffed a bit, shaking his head. “A dimension walker. Great. Or maybe your cousin? And here I thought it’d be hard to find an alien with a hairier chest than you.”</p><p>“Shut up, you love it!”</p><p>“Yea, yea.” Alex buried his face back into the paperwork.</p>
<hr/><p>They’d agreed to take it slow, not rush into things with their new relationship. Alex had made the point one day, during a make out session, that the FBI would not look kindly on a relationship between partners. At this point, neither of them could imagine a life without the other, so they decided to hide whatever this was from Assistant Director Valenti.</p><p>She had, of course, apologized for the previous “mix up” of the pair only having one room at the hotel, insisting that the men let her take care of the reservations this time around. Michael was not looking forward to spending the first night in months sleeping without Alex. Every so often he would shoot a look over to Alex in the passenger side, trying to ignore the fluttering in his stomach at the thought of going through the night without his partner. About three hours in Alex had gone silent, staring out the window like some kind of cliché emo kid in a movie. He looked gorgeous though, the sun shining through his window turning his eyelashes a deep golden color.</p><p>“All good private? You’re thinking pretty loud over there.”</p><p>“It’s nothing, just trying to do the logistics. There’s so many unknown factors going into this.” He shot him a tight smile, but Michael could see the calculations going on in Alex’s brain.</p><p>“Don’t worry private, we’ve made it this far, we got this.” Michael let himself rest his hand on Alex’s knee, taking comfort in the contact between them. Since Roswell they’d reveled in what physical contact they could have. Alex shied away from PDA, a deep-set reaction to his upbringing. So, in the time that they had alone, Michael took as much as he could. He could tell that Alex needed it just as much when his partner grabbed his hand and squeezed, Alex’s smile softening into something more genuine.</p><p>“Yea, we got this.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The boys finally arrive.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've been gone for a while. It's been a crazy few months for me and I started working full time. Plus with this insanely long hiatus I lost motivation again. But, here it is! I'm pretty happy that I've even gotten this out! I do have some more motivation for the future, plus I'm thinking of another AU to write, so keep a look out for that.</p>
<p>As usual please comment or kudos, I literally need them to keep up motivation.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He woke to the sharp smell of pine drifting in from the sunroof. He was overly warm from the sun shining through, a quick check in the rearview showed that his cheeks had turned red from the dappled light. Alex looked over sheepishly at his partner, he couldn’t miss the adoring look Michael shot him at the soft noise he let out while stretching.</p>
<p>“You snored all the way through the first two hours, we’re more than halfway there by now.” Michael rolled his shoulders, stretching out the stiff muscles of his neck. Alex’s mouth went dry as he watched his shoulders ripple under the loose t-shirt that Michael loved to travel in.</p>
<p>“See something you like agent?”</p>
<p>He hummed in response; Michael’s super inflated ego could handle his lack of an answer. Alex’s attention was drawn towards the window and the vast expanse of green that waited for him out there. The thing was, Alex had never really seen this many pine trees in his life before. Sure, there had been the odd pine trees in the park, and the Christmas trees every year, but he grew up in Roswell and moved to Washington D.C. after his service. The Pine Barrens though, they were sprawling, rolling, miles long.</p>
<p>“Oh my god, Michael…” the scene left him breathless, he couldn’t bring himself to look away.</p>
<p>“I looked up the hotel that Valenti booked before we left it’s right in the heart of the place. There’s a ton of small towns scattered through the Pines, and it’s mostly the people who live there that have had the most reported sightings.” Michael’s face positively lit up with excitement, his eyes sparkling in the sunlight pouring through the windows. They lapsed into a comfortable silence as Alex let the peace inside the car slowly sink into his bones.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Michael pulled up to a bed and breakfast not far off the main street of the town, if it could even be considered a full-fledged town. It was a sleepy place, and Michael had lost cell service about a half hour back during their drive over. Alex- as expected- was not happy with the development.</p>
<p>“If this is what the cell service is like, then how are we going to send updates to the office? Valenti still expects you to email her regular reports.”</p>
<p>Michael made a face at him as they grabbed their bags from the rental.</p>
<p>“You know I hate doing those anyway. I never know how much we need to put in and how much to leave out.”</p>
<p>“You’re a smart guy, plus you do a great job on those reports.”</p>
<p>“Oh? And how do you know that?”</p>
<p>“Guerin, please, as if I don’t have access to Valenti’s computer files, that’s adorable.” Warmth curled in Michael’s gut at Alex’s sappy expression.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The bed and breakfast ended up being a small squat house, two stories, with a wrap-around porch. The paint was peeling at the edges, and ungodly dirty pink color, the old wood of the porch made Michael’s hands itch to fix the curling floorboards. An ungodly creak sounded from underneath Alex’s shoes, making the two men wince at the noise. Alex shot a look over at Michael, unable to resist quirking an eyebrow at him.</p>
<p>“Cozy isn’t it?” Michael grinned back at him and reached out to knock on the door. The doorknocker set into the heavy wooden door was large and iron, shaped like a grimacing face.</p>
<p>“Michael, you sure about this?” Alex felt the hair on the back of his arms stand on end as the hinges on the door screeched. Alex found himself shoved bodily behind Michael and held there with a steel grip. On the other side of the door stood someone frail and small, she was leaning heavily on a cane and staring at the two of them with something akin to curiosity on her face.</p>
<p>“Hello? What can I do for you boys?” She sounded kind, just genuinely curious as to what they were doing there standing on her porch. Alex ducked out from behind Michael’s outstretched arm and reached out to shake her hand.</p>
<p>“Hi ma’am, I’m FBI Agent Manes, this is my partner, Agent Guerin, we’re here on an investigation?” The woman clutched at her chest and took a step back.</p>
<p>“Oh! Look, I didn’t do anything wrong, ok? I didn’t know my niece had put marijuana into those brownies! And I only had two, she said I wouldn’t get in trouble for it!”</p>
<p>“No, ma’am that’s not what we’re here for,” Michael was trying and failing to stifle a smirk behind his hand, and Alex had to shoot him a glare from over his shoulder. “Our superior officer told us that this is where she got our reservations at?”</p>
<p>“Oh!” She blushed deeply and let out a sigh. “Oh, that’s right. I didn’t know that the reservation was for federal agents. I’m sorry,” she turned to the side, letting them inside. “Let’s just. Let’s just keep that little outburst between us, ok?”</p>
<p>“I have no idea what you’re talking about ma’am.” Michael winked at her, and her worried look morphed into a grateful smile.</p>
<p>“Aren’t you a cheeky one?” She led to two of them to a run-down front desk she had positioned in front of the staircase. “Ok, you two are in the Pink room and the Blue room respectively.” She held out two keys, one of which had been painted the same pink that the house siding had been, the other was a faded chipped blue.</p>
<p>“Thank you, miss-?”</p>
<p>“Oh, pssh, just call me Doreen dear.”</p>
<p>“Well, thank you Doreen. You’ve been very kind.” Alex took the keys from Doreen and held out the blue one to Michael. He waited until they were up the stairs before he pulled Michael aside.</p>
<p>“What was that?”</p>
<p>“What?” Michael was the picture of innocence, but Alex could tell by the glint in his eye that he knew exactly what Alex was talking about.</p>
<p>“Such a flirt.”</p>
<p>“Yea, you love it.” Michael leaned in close to him, invading his personal space. Alex found himself putting up his hands between the two of them, trying to stop himself from pulling Michael in inexorably closer, fighting his urge to merge them as close together as possible. Instead, he fisted Michael’s shirt in his hands, and took a second to allow himself to bask in Michael’s smell. He inhaled once, twice, letting the worry wash away from his mind as he sought comfort from the man in front of him. A thump from behind him spiked his heart rate, and he leapt away from Michael, putting a good foot between them before he turned around. Doreen was tottering at the bottom of the staircase sweeping dust off shelves holding what looked like rows of ancient porcelain dolls.</p>
<p>“Meet you back here in five?” Michael shot him a puzzled look, but nodded.</p>
<p>“Yea agent, in five.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alex took refuge in his room, closing the door behind him and shutting his eyes tight.  His heart pounded at even the thought of this stranger, Doreen, seeing the two of them together. Something deep in his bones said -danger- when someone came close to the two of them. The small voice in his head whispered about the traumas of his past. He let himself take a steadying breath or two before he opened his eyes and surveyed the room before him.</p>
<p>Alex couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh. It would take forever to search all these damn porcelain dolls for bugs.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>